Method of molding amber



(No Model.) n V 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. P. EG-GE. METHOD OF MOLDING AMBER.

No. 445,285. Patented Jan. 27,1891.

WITNES S: fl ID WENTOR %-UQ\/ WWW ATTORNEY 2 SheetsSheet 2.

(No Model.)

P. EGGE. METHOD OF MOLDING AMBER.

No. 445,285. Patented Jan. 27,1891.

iii-E INVBNTOR W BY WITNE SES ATTORNEY mums vgwcns llNTTnn STATES PATENT ()FFTCE.

FREDERICK EGGE, OF BRIDGEPORT, CON NEO'IIC'U'I.

METHOD OF MOLDING AMBER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 445,285, dated January 2'7, 1891.

Application filed July 26, 1890. Serial No. 360,045- (No model.)

To all whom it may concern..-

Be it known I, FREDERICK EGGE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Molding Amher; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in the method of mold ing articles from small pieces or chips of amber, and has for its object to retain the natural qualities and attributes of the amber and to afford a very simple and effective method of solidifying the particles of amber into a single homogeneous mass.

It is essential that in the formation of various articles from small pieces or chips of amber none of the natural oil and succinic acid of the amber should depart from the latter, and heretofore in the few processes that have been patented for molding small pieces of amber into single articles the allimportant end in view is the preservation of the essential oils and succinic acid, and the liberation of said oils and acid is supposed to be due to excessive heat. Now excessive heat is of course injurious, because the amber is thereby charred and decomposed and rendered unfit for use; but the liberation of the oils and acid is not always due to excessive heat. An intermittent pressure on the molds, even when heated to a proper degree, will cause the particles of amber to part with more or less of said oils and acid, while any pressure on the molds, no matter how grad ually it is applied, will not prevent the escape of said oils and acid as long as there is communication with the air and the inside of the molds, or if after the amber has been compressed the contraction of the molds and amber leaves a free space between the molds and the molded article. In the processes heretofore known the pressure does not appear to have been considered as an important factor in the accomplishment of the end aimed at, and while I am fully aware that the molding of amber by the application of heat and pressure is not new still it is an indisputable fact that the word pressure has been used in the above-mentioned patented processes in the vaguest and most generic sense, whereas I am abundantly able to show that in my improved process the pressure is the key to the success which has hitherto attended my experiments. On the other hand, I will hereinafter show that it is impossible to burn or char the amber in practicing my process.

In the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a perspective of a pair of molds and a mold-box such as I use in carrying out my invention; Fig. 2, a vertical section through the molds and box, showing as a molded article mouthpiece for a cigar; Figs. 3, 4-, and 5, elevations of presses for carrying out my improved method, and Fig. 6 an elevation of a press such as I would use when a bath of molten lead was employed as a heating agent.

Similar letters denote like parts in the several figures of the drawings.

The molds shown are adapted for the forma tion of a mouthpiece for a cigar; but this is of course shown by way of exemplification, as it is obvious that the molds may be formed to produce any article desired; also, I will state that the molds and mold-box form no part of my present invention, since they are old and well known, and their operation needs no description herein.

A are the molds, and B the mold-box. From a post C extends a bracket D, upon which the molds and box properly assembled rest.

E is a bracket extending from the post G and having an open head F, as shown at Fig. 3.

G is a beam which rests upon the upper mold, the rear end of said beam extending through the head F and bearing against a bolt H, which passes through the top of said head and abuts against a concavity a in the upper edge of the beam. For all practical purposes the beam might as well be simply pivoted within the bracket E; but I prefer the construction shown, because I am thereby enabled to normally elevate or depress the beam either to accommodate different sizes of molds or mold-boxes or for any other obvious reason. At the outer end of the beam are suspended Weights I, by which the pressure on the molds is determined. Fig. 4 virtually shows a construction the same as Fig. 3, with the exception that instead of resting directly upon the bracket D the lllOldS and box are supported 011 top of a gas-chamber J, which in turn rests upon said bracket, while the beam is secured by the bolt H within the post itself instead of the bracket E.

In Fig. 5 the bracket E extends straight out from the post 0, and the beam is in the shape of an L-lever pivoted at the angle to said bracket, the molds and mold-box being clamped between the heel of said lever and a shoulder K, secured to the bracket.

The construction shown at Fig. 0 is such as I would prefer to employ when I use a bath of molten lead as a heating agent, and it consists merely of two levers L M, pivoted together after the manner of a pair of tongs, the molds and box being placed between the forward ends of said levers and temporarily secured by a ring N around the latter. The lever M is secured within anysuitable frame adjacent to the lead bath, and the weights I are suspended from the lever L.

There is a principle which underlies my invention and which I believe to be of vital importance in the molding of articles from pieces of amber by the application of heat and pressurenamely, the application to the molds of a constant pressure, yielding but not relaxing only when opposition is met with. in the expansion of the molds or amber.

The pressure caused by the weights is not only constant, but the softening or fusing of the amber actually-governs the operation of the pressure, for the latter is resisted at first by the hard particles of amber, and as the latter softens by degrees the pressure will automatically operate and cause the molds to approach each other until the said particles are compressed into the desired shape. Therefore the heat applied is the primary agent, which automatically effects the opera tion of the pressure, and when the molds have been closed by the pressure (as can readily be ascertained by inspection or by a gage) the particles of amber will have been softened and united in a homogeneous mass and the molding will have been completed, and the heating agent may then be removed and the amber allowed to cool under the pressure.

There is always more or less surplus amber forced out in the form of a fin between the edges of the molds by the compression of the latter; but when theambercontractsduring cooling the sudden relieving of the pressure from the body of the molded article will cause said pressure to bear Wholly upon this fin, the result being that the latter will be ground or bitten off and the mold allowed to follow up the contracted article in orderthat the latter may become cool under pressure.

Heretofore pressure to the mold has not been applied under any uniformity or rule, and therefore many articles are imperfectly molded or completely spoiled by forcing the molds before the amber has been given that constituency by the heat which will warrant a closing of the molds.

In my improved process it will be borne in mind that the actual change in the disposition of the amber particles as they soften or fuse under the action of the heat automatically lessens the resistance to the pressure on the molds and permits the latter to gradually close, and when said molds are closed the heating agent is removed, because the very closing of the molds warns the workman that the amber has been united in a homogeneous mass. Therefore it will be readily understood that as long as the heating agent is removed after the molds are closed by an automatic constant pressure it is impossible to char or decompose the amber, and moreover I am enabled to entirely dispense with a thermometer for determining the degree of heat.

Cam or screw pressure on the mold is not desirable, because contraction (on cooling) of the molds and amber causes relaxation of pressure, so that the amber becomes loose in the molds, the consequence being that the molded article frequently becomes warped and distorted and sometimes cracked and broken, while at the same time the volatile parts of the amber oil are free to vaporize and pass off into the airspace around the molded article.

For a proper understanding of my invention it must be borne in mind that a pressure regulated and determined by hand is not the same and will not produce the same results as a constant pressure automatically applied and following up without an intermission the yielding of the article or substance during compression, and also that it would never do in the molding of a substance by heat and pressure to use a pressure which would not yield to the expansion of the molds and the substance to be molded. For instance, a pressure applied by a screw or cam, While open to the objection that it is intermittent, also has this disadvantage-namely, that any expansion of the amber or molds after the operation of molding is completed and before the contraction takes place will be successfully resisted by the molds, thereby causing the amber to become charred and decomposed. In other words, any force created by the expansion of the molds or amber must cause the molds to yield, and moreover during contraction the pressure should force the molds closely to the molded article, so as to preventthe escape of the essential oils and succinic acid, as hereinbefore set forth. To sum up, the pressure required to mold whole articles from pieces of amber must be constant and must yield without relaxing to the expansion of the molds or amber when such expansion can find no other relief save the charring or decomposition of the amber.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

IIO

1. The herein-described method of making automatic pressure constantly and uniformly zo integral articles from pieces of amber, conapplied, as set forth. sisting in molding said pieces into shape un- In testimony whereof Iaflixmy signature in der the application of heat and an automatic presence of two Witnesses. pressure constantly and uniformly applied,

FREDERICK EGGE. as set forth.

2. The method of molding amber, which Vitnesses: consists in heating the molds and amber and F. V. SMITH, J12, synchronously subjecting the same to an J. S. FINCH. 

